On the Line (Alternate Places Book 3) (35 page)

George colored a bit, “Don't play with me, Kaitlyn.” He
growled.

Looking at him squarely she gave him a rather vulpine grin
and licked her lips a little, in a way that caught his attention easily, as
he'd temporarily forgotten that, no matter what else she might be, Alede was
first among them.

“Are you sure you don't want to play games George?” She made
her voice soft, sexy and light, as if in invitation. Heck, if sleeping with him
would smooth everything over she'd do him right now, on the table. Even if it
would scar Lisa for life. Maybe they could get her to leave for a while?

He blinked solidly and humphed.

Kate nodded then and leaned forward.

“All right George let's get this out of the way. No
negotiation here, no games, for now at least. No jokes... Back off Nikki and
Rebeca and take your punishment like a man. What happened to you sucked. We all
get that.
Except
it seems, you. You can't see it as a lesson about what
not
to do to other people as it was obviously intended.
So get it
. Agreed?
Or do we really need to go over this single thing for hours when you should
have gotten it by day
three
and the thousand playing of 'won't you be my
neighbor
?' It's in your court, but all the fun stuff only happens if you
bend on this point...”

For a second she thought he'd storm out or grandstand,
claiming that anything done to him had to have more weight than something done
to some dead piece of trash, instead he closed his eyes for a full minute, no
one speaking at all, and mutter a quiet word.

“Fine.” He intoned.

“Fine? As in, you'll call everyone and everything off of all
of our people, especially Nicole and Rebeca, no tricks or games? We can simply
start with a clean slate, on both sides, and go forward as friends?” She made
herself sound hopeful in a tone that all the Alede understood, since it had
been taught in school around the fifth grade. Designed and practiced to hit
every heart string in a male human. She looked at him adoringly. She knew that
he knew at least part of what she was doing, but that wouldn't matter, since
the fact that she bothered to try had an impact too, showing him how much she
wanted all this to happen.

Sighing, he looked at the people he brought with him, who
shrugged, tilted their head or nodded, basically showing that
they
didn't really have a problem with the idea.

“Agreed. Nicole Bartlet and Rebeca Smith will be free of
retribution as long as they agree to not pursue any harm, violence, or
hazing
,
against me or mine. Is that agreeable?”

Claire asked for a definition of
mine
in that context,
and then agreed, speaking for her people, that they wouldn't go after him or
any people working for him as long as not directly or indirectly attacked. Don
cleared his throat and waved to George when he had everyone's attention.

“I, uh, have an idea... From now on, when we're all dealing
with each other, since we're all friends now, why don't we do away with the
lawyer language and start
acting
like friends? Everyone here on this
side is saying don't hurt our friends or set them up. In return we agree not to
hurt you or set you up in the same way. No loop holes, no take backs. I know, a
bit playground, but it should cut out about three hours of going over the same
thing to reach that basic agreement.”

George actually chuckled at that, Harold, the Indian nodded
and smiled.

“I like these people, George. Perhaps we misjudged them
earlier. Sorry if we did folks, things can happen when you don't have all the
information...”

Clapping a bit, happy that things were getting settled, Kate
started on the next section.

“All right, spying. Don't do it. In return, we give you and
your friends here, as long as they all check out that is, a seat at the table.
If you want to know something, you ask and we'll tell you. In return, you do
the same for us. All above board. If you
really
have to keep some Mage
secret under orders, or don't want to tell someone what you're getting them for
their birthday or something, no problem.

“If you
do
have a problem, actually tell us! We may
fight and argue about it, but you'll get way better intel that way. And, even
though it hasn't ever, to my knowledge, come up that
we
want to know
about you, past where you get your suits at least, we'll just do the same with
you.”

They agreed, but Kate could tell that they didn't believe
they would actually be told anything.

Kaitlyn sighed a bit, understanding the idea, but not wanting
to let things fall apart from just their lack of trust. So she covered
everything that had happened that day, ending with the successful resolution
for his daughter and the others. He looked grateful, and relieved. That beat
the baffled that she'd expected really.

“See, now that was a bunch of information, including the
nitty-gritty details that you probably didn't want to know, not all of them,
like what Zack and Lisa were
doing
that allowed that situation to
happen, but...” She laughed when George put up a hand as if to urge her to stop
there.

“Right. So, what do you think, are you all in?”

She looked at the people sitting there, all of them looked to
be in basic agreement with the idea now.

She told them that she planned to hold monthly meetings, and
more if there were emergencies, she'd get their numbers and call them if things
came up and expected them to do the same. Then as a finale, having their
agreement, she did something no one else at the table, except Zack and probably
Don, knew she was about to do. Zack sent her a tendril of thought, saying “do
it”.

“All right that just leaves one thing, which, will of course,
lead to a thousand more.” Glancing at everyone around the table she continued.

“As of today, there is no longer one Line-Walker, but three.
Now, Don and I
aren't
as good as Zack yet, and we all seem to have
different strengths and skills, but the point is, with three of us, there are
enough for us to declare ourselves an actual working body. A
government
body if you will. So, from this point forward no one is just dealing with Zack,
but instead with a complete Nation.”

Zack raised his hand and smiled, “Seconded.”

Then Don nodded. "I agree as well."

This lead to a lot of questions from the Mages and quite a
few from their own friends who didn't know where
they
stood suddenly.
Kate started making up rules as they went along, smiling at Don, who tried to
take notes, then falling behind, suggested that Betty be made official secretary.

“Wow, Secretary of State?” Betty asked, a glint in her eye.
Kate started to say no, but Zack looked at her and cocked his head. Then
slowly, his narrow shoulders pulled up, as if saying; why not? It actually did
make sense, after a fashion. They needed someone that would be able to do the
job after all, and she had sort of just volunteered.

Looking at Betty, Kate winked, “OK, but that's provisional,
and since you have dual citizenship, you have to check anything important with
the rest of us and, you know, no declaring war. We can't really back that yet.
It would be more like a name calling fest, for one thing and I don't know if
Don is really up for that yet. Zack isn't, so remember that.” Not that she was
up for that kind of thing either. At least she could use the word fuck in a
sentence without blushing. Still, that was almost always a good thing, when she
used it.

Much to the amusement of everyone except Betty and the Mages,
who all knew what a Secretary of State actually
did
, this was put through.
Unanimously.

Kate made up rules then and important position or not, Betty
wrote everything down with superhuman speed. To become a member you could marry
in, or at least have a solid relationship with someone that was a Line-Walker,
or
become one yourself. This left it technically open to Demons, but, they
decided, if a Demon wanted to join, they had to give up Demon citizenship and
agree to normal Line-Walker rules and laws. Most of which they hadn't made up
yet.

Decisions would be made by a vote of the Line-Walkers as a whole,
so everyone with citizenship, but if you didn't show up for the discussions you
didn't get a vote.

They made a lot more, but all of it was subject to change if
it turned out not to work.

Then, surprising the Mages that sat at the table, including
Jelly, Zack suggested a working relationship be broached with the Mages and
some of the other groups, if they wished.

Kate looked around the table, noticing how ordinary everyone
looked. Oh, a lot of them were attractive and no one at the table was less that
respectable looking, but it seemed like people doing big things like this
should be, well, special somehow. Maybe they could all rent glowing nimbus' of
light or something? Or they could all get matching t-shirts that said “Number one
Nation Builders” on them.

“What do you think George, Harald? How about you Gabrielle?
Mr. Fort? Do you think that the Mages would like to continue working with us?
We could switch to a new embassy and all, and may in the future, but then we'd
have to take all your personnel out of Underwood with us except Gregory and
really, we may just grab him... I know that
I
really like and trust
Eloise and think that having good friends is better than drifting in a sea of
strangers.” Kaitlyn made a point to pick up the pen that Merri had gotten for
her, so she could take notes. Everyone at the table agreed that would be a fine
thing to do and suggested that they hold an event, inviting as many world
leaders as possible soon.

Britney squealed, “Hey, can I be like, the princess of
parties?”

They talked into the night, sending the Mages home about two
in the morning and looked at Lisa and Libby, who both seemed a bit tired. She
called a halt to the evening's activities then and suggested that they all get
some rest. Those that slept anyway, since they had things to do in the morning
now.

Betty took Don by the hand, who looked grateful for the
action, and then snagged Britney's hand on the way by. She stopped in front of
Blaine and waited.

The Vampire woman looked at him, charmingly, and made a silly
face.

"Look, I only have two hands, so... You get the idea?
Follow along. It will be a grand old time."

Libby and Merri were trying to pull Zack away with them, but
Kate told them no, firmly. She looked around and found Maryl standing by Lisa.

“Maryl gets Zack tonight,
and
for the next, I don't
know, while at least. To make sure that he really doesn't use any extra
pleasure when he does anything fun. We'll be getting reports,
and
checking her Zack, so no cheating on this.” She didn't glare, but she did look
at him seriously, so he'd know she meant it. If he really didn't want to have
sex with Maryl, then they could find someone else, but he wasn't getting his
hands on any of the others until he checked out as safe. For a
while
.

Kate had no problem believing that Zack could hold off for
one day. Or even forever. The trouble was that he apparently thought it was
easier to just entrance women with loads of pleasure than to simply be a good
lover. That probably had to do with low self-esteem, which made sense to
Kaitlyn, but made the situation a lot worse, not better. If he was more
confident, then he'd know that everyone loved him just for being himself.
Lacking that, he might be more liable to think that it was all about tricks and
magic. If so, he could relapse incredibly easily.

Zack didn't complain, though
Maryl
looked more than a
little shocked. She recovered quickly enough though and took him by the hand,
making it harder for him to get away.

Kate looked at the remaining women, and decided that she
really couldn't adequately handle
everything
in one night.

"Mom, do you have any plans for the night?"

Her mother gave her a sly look, as if she were going to
suggest they do something together. Not that they ever had. That would be
gross, even for an Alede.

"I don't. Do you have a suggestion?"

"Why not take Chi and Jelly to her room? Just remember
that I'm calling both of them for later. No stealing them full time or
anything."

The suggestion made Chi's eyes light up, having thought he'd
be relegated to a sofa, or possibly a bedroom alone. The new place was big
enough that the latter one was probably correct. Unless there were massive
amounts of Alede around, that was. Sharing was so much more fun. Kate smiled at
those two and told them that
she'd
be free for them the following night.
If they were interested.

Searching the room, she passed Merri off to David and Dwayne
on the caveat that they had to do what
Merri
said, at least as far as
sex went. Then told her that she could do pretty much whatever she wanted with
them, as long as she made sure they had plenty of lubricant. That was the trick
to decent Vampire sex really. Lots of lube.

Turning to Libby and Lisa she frowned, something she had to
make herself do, since the facial expression wasn't a normal one for her kind.

“You two come with me. Hit
me
in the head and try to
fry me for saving your lives will you? I think not.” She took both of them to
her room and didn't let them go till the next morning, even though she
did
let
them sleep. In shifts.

Zack got them off to work two hours early and took Don and
her through the lines, making them follow him, over and over again. Hundreds of
times to begin with, well, dozens of times really, she reflected, but it
felt
like more. Both of them reeled and felt dizzy after that, though Zack told them
the worst of that effect would go away over time. If they followed the pattern
he did at all.